


blue

by chaoticlywise



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-07-04 00:49:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15830337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaoticlywise/pseuds/chaoticlywise
Summary: Peter hadn’t been sure where he was going until he saw the Tower. He had gone to a small hole in the wall cafe that was about to close and gotten himself a hot chocolate to warm himself up but kept walking. It seemed that muscle memory was bringing him to his second home.Or:Peter and May get into a fight. Peter goes to Tony in the middle of the night for a place to stay. Peter realizes that he and Tony are more alike than he once thought.





	blue

The cool fall air nipped at Peter Parker’s cheeks as he walked down the sidewalk. Fall in New York was always cooler than Peter would have liked, especially after the spider bite. The teenager wrapped his spindly fingers more firmly around the disposable hot chocolate cup as he adjusted his earbuds, letting the warmth of the drink seep into his hands. He sighed and as he looked up, he could see his breath puff out before him in a white, smoky cloud under the streetlights.

Spider-Man should be out right now, but Peter Parker was instead. He pulled his sweatshirt more firmly around himself and kept walking. In the distance was the mighty Avengers Tower. A few lights were on inside, enough to make it look welcoming. Tony had been able to sell it but when a certain spider themed hero became more prominent in Tony’s life, he bought it back and took it off the market for good. That was fine with Peter. He liked the Tower, the Compound was nice too, but it didn’t have the same homely feel that the Tower did.

Peter hadn’t been sure where he was going until he saw the Tower. He had gone to a small hole in the wall cafe that was about to close and gotten himself a hot chocolate to warm himself up but kept walking. It seemed that muscle memory was bringing him to his second home.

He kept walking, now with a warm place in mind. He took a sip from his slowly chilling drink before grimacing and throwing it away in the nearest trash can. 

Once Peter arrived at the door to the tower, he slipped out a keycard from his back pocket and swiped it in the card slot. There was a soft beep that was all too familiar and then a voice that sounded distinctly like FRIDAY said softly ‘PETER PARKER. ACCESS LEVEL: ALL’ and the loud click of the lock in contrast from the quiet night pulled him out of his thoughts. Tony had just recently added this feature when he realized that Peter would come over to the building even after it closed. A select few were given key cards so they could enter the building from the main lobby even after everyone had left. Spider-Man would have just gone in through one of the balconies. But Peter was a different story.

It was always so weird, Peter thought as he walked into the main lobby, to have nothing going on in the normally lively room. It was dark inside except the few small wall lights that would turn on after hours. It was almost eerie. The only sound was the tapping of his shoes on the tile and the humming of the lights. He ambled over to the elevator ane pressed the up button. A gentle ding sounded from the elevator when the doors slid open and he stepped in. 

“Hello, Mister Parker. How are you this evening?” FRIDAY asks from the speakers embedded in the wall of the elevator. He winces at the volume of her loud voice but answers the AI anyway.

“Hey, FRI, I’m good. How are you?”

The volume was lower when she answered this time but it was loud enough to hear the amused lilt in her voice. “I’m fine, thank you for asking. Shall I alert Boss that you’re here?”

“No, that’s okay. I’m just gonna crash in my room or somethin’.” Peter said. He was really tired and it seemed that he hadn’t noticed it until just then.

“Very well.” FRIDAY said and the elevator began to go up. Peter rolled his head so it was facing the window of the elevator and the outside. Rain was slowly starting to fall, car and traffic lights becoming a soft, hazy drizzle in the background. Soon enough, the doors slide open to show the empty penthouse. He walks in and flops down on the leather couch.

“Long night, kiddo?” Someone asks from behind him, in the kitchen. So, the penthouse wasn’t as empty as he’d hoped. Peter turns around and Tony is sitting at the kitchen counter, nursing a cup of coffee. He raises an eyebrow at Peter when all he gets in return is a groan and Peter leaning back onto the couch. “Jeez, kids these days.” Tony mutters to himself in a joking manner but there is genuine concern in his voice that not many have heard.

“FRIDAY tell you I’m here?” Peter asks tiredly. 

“Mm, no. I was just getting some coffee.” Tony says as he gets up from his spot in the kitchen and makes his way over to Peter. He crouches in front of him and turns his head towards him and looks into Peter’s eyes for any telltale sign of pain. Tony's eyebrows are creased with barely hidden worry. “Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“Then why’re you here at a whopping 3 o’clock in the morning?”

“It’s nothing. I’m fine.” Tony scoffs.

“You wouldn’t be here if you were fine. What happened?” Peter stays quiet for a minute, not making eye contact with Tony. He sits up and scoots so Tony can take a seat next to him. Tony takes the hint without having Peter embarrass himself and sits down. He doesn’t touch the kid but he sits close enough to know that the kid must be cold because he can’t feel his normally extra warm body temperature radiating off of him.

“... May and I got into a fight,” Peter begins. Tony nods for him to continue. “It was bad. We both said stuff that we- I regret.” Tony looks over to Peter whose hands are clenched into his oversized sweatshirt. It’s clearly not his, it’s too big. 

“If you don’t mind me asking, what’d you guys fight about?” Tony asks hesitantly. Peter sighs, heavier than Tony’s ever heard him. 

“First it was about Spider-Man,” there’s emotion thickly laced into his voice and Tony can see the first tear fall into the kids lap. He so badly wants to scoot over just a little further and comfort him because this? This is excruciating. To watch the kid fall apart like this. “Then it turned into grades, then she said-” He cuts himself off with a loud sniffle and does what he probably thinks is a discrete wipe of his eyes. May is scary but not scary enough to keep Tony from laying into her about hurting Peter. He’s just a kid whose been hurt a lot in his short 16 years. Peter continues. “She said Ben wouldn’t want me to be Spider-Man. She used him against me. And I’m the reason he’s dead. Part of it, at least.” Peter said and the disdain was clear in his voice alone. Tony almost gasps at the unsettling truth of it all. May said that? To Peter? And Peter thought Bed’s death was his fault? Shit. 

“Peter…” Tony begins but he’s at a loss for what to say. He wants to be mad at May but he knows what time of the year it is. They’re both struggling and Peter is depressed and May has anxiety about almost everything. They aren’t a good pair this time of year. Peter’s phone starts to ring and Tony sees May’s contact when Peter pulls it out of one of his back pockets. He clicks ignore but he stands up anyway. 

“No. I shouldn’t have come here. Sorry, Tony.” Peter says and he moves towards the elevator. Tony grabs his wrist and tugs him back to the couch. 

“You can stay here for the night, if you want.” Tony says. Peter looks interested. “Call or text May back, tell her where you are. Hell, I’ll vouch for you if you need me to, just say the words.” Tony says, almost pleading with the kid. He didn’t want Peter to be alone right now. Peter nods hesitantly.

“Maybe that is a good idea…” Peter says slowly, as if he’s unsure if Tony’s going to laugh and say ‘just kidding, get outta here’. The man just nods.

“That’s just what I was thinking, kiddo. You know you’ve got a room here. You can stay there or sleep on the couch in here, there’s a couch in the lab, too, if you wanted to stay there. DUMM-E and U miss you, you know-” Peter cuts off Tony’s ramblings with a shake of his head. 

“I’ll just- can I just stay here?” Peter asks sounding like a true and worn out child for once. It makes a parental instinct curl deep in Tony’s gut and he wants to reach out and hold him and card his fingers through the kids hair. He refrains. He’s not the kids dad. They’re not even related. 

“Yep, totally,” Tony gets up and grabs a blanket off of the other, smaller couch and drapes it over Peter when he lays down. “Here, this should be better. Fall in New York is a little chilly for spiderbabies, isn’t it?” He asks rhetorically but Peter closes his eyes sleepily and hums softly in affirmation. The kid must be tired because he falls asleep almost as soon as the blanket is covering him, his breaths coming out in soft, even pants. Tony stares at his youthful face for a second too long to be socially acceptable if he was awake and moves away.

Instead of going back to the lab like he’d been planning before the elevator doors opened, Tony grabs his coffee, a book that Pepper had told him was good one time and he’s been meaning to read and dims the lights. He sits down in one of the arm chairs near the couch where Peter had started to doze. 

——————————————————————

Peter wakes up to a halo of sun shining in his face. He turns onto his other side and his nose pressed into leather cushions. His eyes fly open when he remembers the night before. He sits up quickly, the fluffy blanket on top of him rustles at the sudden movement. His eyes are wide as he looks around. There’s nobody in the kitchen and that’s only a little worrying because he remembered that Tony had been in there last night. ‘He probably has better things to do than babysit’ Peter thinks, a little bitterly. 

“Slow your roll, Speedy Gonzales.” Tony’s voice says from behind him. Peter startles and turns quickly around to face Tony. There’s an open book on his lap and a mug of presumably coffee in his hand. One of his eyebrows is raised in questioning manner as he brings the mug to his lips to take a loud, obnoxious sip.

“Jesus, why do you keep sneaking up on me like that? Give a guy a little warning.” Peter said dramatically with a hand placed just over his quickly beating heart. He looks out the window and the sun is already risen and is now shining painfully bright into the living room. “Shit! I have school!”

“Hey, it’s okay. It’s fine. In fact, it’s better than fine. May called last night while you were conked out. She was worried about where you were since you never did end up calling her. I told her you’re here, she said to tell you she’s sorry,” Peter looks down at his hands that fell away from his chest and sighs. “Oh, and you’re sick today.”

“What!” Peter said loudly, head wiping over to Tony with a small glare. Tony looks a little shocked at the outburst. 

“What?” 

“I can’t just miss school, Mister Stark.”

“I did it all the time, what’s the biggy?” 

“I’m not you, Tony. I can’t just skip school, I have a quiz in Spanish today.”

“Wow, okay, rude. But you can miss school when you have a medical reason.”

“Oh, yeah? And what’s that?”

“Taking a mental health day.” The ensuing silence is deafening. It feels like it’s pressing in on Peter’s ears, like when you blast your music too loud in your earbuds and then pause it in a quiet room. Tony knew. Fuck. 

“So…” Peter begins, playing with the edge of the blankets and the words on the tip of his tongue. “You know?” He asks and looking up to make hesitant eye contact. Tony purses his lips, crosses his legs and nods.

“About Ben? Yeah, May told me on the phone. She sounded wrecked.” Tony says and he realizes a second too late that might have been the wrong thing to say because Peter looks like he’s on high alert now. “She’s okay, though. She said you could stay here all today if you need.” She hadn’t said that last bit but he could bet that May wanted the best for her nephew and if that meant that Peter spent the whole day away with someone she didn’t even particularly like but her kid did, then that’s what she would let happen.

“Is she mad at me?” Peter asks feebly. He feels like a kid again. He’s sixteen, he shouldn’t be this much of an emotional mess.

“No, and if she is mad, she’s probably more mad at herself than you.” Tony says. Peter nods and shifts so he’s sitting on one of his socked feet - which don’t have shoes on them anymore? He’ll ask Tony about that later - and the other leg sticks off of the couch and his foot just barely protrudes from underneath the blanket. 

“Are you okay with me staying here for the day? I’ll go home a little later. Or now! If you need me to get outta your hair…” Peter trails off. He looked so hopeful, Tony couldn’t turn him down even if he wanted to.

“Sure, you hungry?” Tony asks as he stands up and puts his coffee and the book he was reading down on the coffee table. He walks to the kitchen and begins to shuffle around contents in the fridge and Peter looks on, a little confused. Was Tony going to cook for him? Weirder things have happened to him, he supposed. He gets up off the couch and follows Tony into the kitchen. He sits down on the barstool Tony had been sitting in the night before and put his head down in the crook of his elbow as he listens to the sound of cracking eggs and sizzling bacon.

Tony makes more food than strictly necessary, he knows the kid has one hell of a metabolism so the plate he gives Peter must look as big as the Tower itself. He sets it down in front of Peter and the teen looks up blearily. Tony hands him a fork and Peter takes it delicately and begins to eat. Tony nods to himself and begins to dish himself up a plate. He sits down next to Peter and they eat in comfortable silence. 

It’s when Peter goes for a second helping and he’s only half way done with his first that Tony says anything. “Are you okay, Peter?” The teenager in question slows his chewing to an almost stop before saying anything. “Like, mentally?”

“I’m better than… before,” Peter begins tentatively. “Being Spider-Man helps. It makes me feel more human? Like, I know I can help people. Since I let Ben down. I dunno.” Peter says and sniffs. “Why’re you even interested?” Tony looks a little affronted for a second, as if Peter hurt him for being interested. He schools his expression quickly.

“I figure with this… thing we have, mentor/mentee relationship, I should know about your life and about you. And what better way to find something out than from the source.” Tony says. “And I may or may not care about you.” Tony says. Peter looks up, his mouth hanging open a little, and Tony looks down at his food. “Jeez, don’t act so suprised, kiddo.” Peter smiles, it’s soft and timid, a smile that isn’t seen often by many people. Maybe he and Tony are more alike that he originally thought.

“Thanks, Mister Stark.” Peter says. Tony just hums in response and shovels more food into his mouth. “Hey, quick question.” Peter says and Tony turns to face him.

“Shoot, kiddo.”

“Where did my shoes go?”

**Author's Note:**

> What can I say, I’m a sucker for angst, the fall season and breakfast fics, so I combined them all and this is what I got. I hope you liked it! Comments and kudos are always appreciated!
> 
> (word count: 2700)


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